Class notes

Collaboration, teamwork lead to increase in grants to WMU

KALAMAZOO - An increase in collaboration and multidisciplinary teamwork has led to a sharp rise in grants to Western Michigan University, a news release said.

Externally funded awards, much of them for research, pushed the grant total for the 2014-15 fiscal year past $35 million, an increase of almost $8 million over the previous year. The grant total in June, the last month of the University fiscal year, came in at $3.7 million.

“Our office has been encouraging and facilitating large collaborative, multidisciplinary, multi-institutional and multi-national partnerships to successfully receive large grants and to create and support research centers,” Dr. Daniel Litynski, WMU vice president for research, said in the release.

Some of the grants awarded included:

$4 million from the Michigan Department of Community Health to boost autism research and training.

$923,700 and $1.4 million from the U.S. Department of Transporation established and support the Transportation Research Center for Livable Communities in cooperation with four other universities.

A series of grants awarded to CAPE — the University’s Center for the Advancement of Printed Electronics, which has been honored for its groundbreaking work in advancing the field of flexible electronic and printed electronic technologies.

Student honors

Meghan Schorfhaar of Coldwater, was recently initiated into The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. Schorfhaar is pursuing a degree in Marketing at Clemson University.